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Financial Times: Sjón’s Book among Year’s Best

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Financial Times: Sjón’s Book among Year’s Best

Icelandic writer Sjón’s novella Moonstone was recently listed among the year’s best books in Financial Times, according to Forlagið publishing company. The newspaper asked writers and journalists to select the best books of the year, and Moonstone, was the choice of Indonesian writer Eka Kurniawan, author of Man Tiger and Beauty is a Wound. The book has received rave reviews, one of which was recently published in The Nation.

In his review, Kurniawan writes, “I always enjoy Sjón’s books, but Moonstone: The Boy Who Never Was (Sceptre) is an experience like no other. The author confronts his own limits, and raises the bar for the reader too ... The novel has given me my best reading experience of the year.”

Moonstone (Mánasteinn) was originally published in Icelandic in 2013, but came out this year in English translation by Victoria Cribb. The novella takes place in Reykjavík in 1918, a dark period in the country’s history. In a poetic way, it describes the life of a 16-year-old boy who struggles in society.

A review of the book was published in the September/October issue of Iceland Review.